Housing Call: March 26, 2024 – North Carolina Housing Coalition

NCHC Updates

Registration for our Bringing It Home Conference is live! Click here. The conference will take place June 4-5 at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh. For the first time since 2019, we’ll be back in person to learn, network, and collaborate with industry experts from across North Carolina and beyond. Bringing It Home: Ending Homelessness in NC is a statewide conference dedicated to ensuring that homelessness in North Carolina is rare, brief, and one time only. The two-day conference will include more than a dozen presentations, panels, and workshops covering a broad range of topics related to homelessness. There will also be opportunities to network and share your own insights with fellow professionals and advocates.

Our Keynote Speaker is the amazing Marisol Bello (she/her) the Executive Director of the Housing Narrative Lab.

For the first time ever, we are accepting sponsorship for the Bringing It Home Conference! If you’re interested in sponsoring the conference or connecting us with someone you think would be, please contact Jessica Griffin at jgriffin@nchousing.org.

SAVE THE DATES

May 3, May 17 – last two Learning Collaborative Sessions
June 4-5, Bringing It Home Conference
September 5-6 – North Carolina Affordable Housing Conference

Federal Updates

Congress avoided another federal government shutdown just hours before the deadline on March 22, 2024. The President released his FY2025 Budget last week which you can find here.
Updates on the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act 2023
- Now has 218 co-sponsors in the House = a simple majority. And it is still evenly split between both parties. There are still a number of Democrats who are in the queue.
- Efforts are still being made to meet with as many members as possible to garner support, and push additional provisions of the Housing Credit legislation across the finish line this year.
Updates on the Tax Package 2024
- You’ll remember that a tax package passed on January 31 that included two key provisions from the AHCIA – reinstating the 12.5% expansion of the 9% credit retroactively for 2023 as well as 2024 and 2025, as well as lowering the 50% private activity bond threshold to 30%.
- The number of vehicles to attach this legislation to is dwindling. Advocacy continues.

For templates on how to communicate with your members of Congress about both the AHCIA 2023 as well as the Tax and Jobs legislation click here.

A recent settlement with the National Association of Realtors is expected to help bring down home prices. Realtors’ commissions are expected to decrease as a result of the ruling, and as a result, home prices are expected to decrease. For a median priced home at $387K, this ruling could bring down brokerage fees of about $23K by as much as $6-12K.
For the first time in 15 years – the Federal Housing Administration increases its loan limits to expand financing for manufactured homes. On March 18, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced new loan limits for its Title I Manufactured Home Loan Program. The increases were made using different methodologies explained here. The changes are meant to better align with current market prices and are expected to incentivize and encourage lenders to offer the program to homebuyers who are trying to purchase manufactured homes and the lots on which they sit. These loan limits will be recalculated on an annual basis so that they can try to keep pace with price changes over time.
HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) launched a new “Source of Income Protections” website. This website explains what Source-of-Income (SOI) is, the impact of SOI discrimination, all the forms of SOI discrimination that happens, as well as a map of what states and localities have laws against SOI discrimination. Additional resources recently updated by the Poverty & Race Research Action Council on Source-of-Income Discrimination can be found here.

State

The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) is asking people to comment on proposed changes to funding for Hurricane Florence recovery and funding for resiliency against future storms. The proposed changes being considered include spending on the Homeowner Recovery Program, Affordable Housing Development Fund, Homeownership Assistance Program, Infrastructure Recovery Program, and other updates.

Public comments must be submitted by 5 p.m on April 15, 2024 to publiccomments@rebuild.nc.gov or sent by US Postal Services to NCORR Public COmments, P.O. BOx 110465, Durham, NC 27709.

Draft of the proposed changes can be found here and are available in both English and Spanish.

State Legislative Updates

Relevant NCGA Meetings

TODAY – March 26, 2024 – Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on General Government at 1:00pm
April 2, 2024 – Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid at 1:00pm
April 2, 2024 – Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health & Human Services

The NC House and Senate are convening on Wednesday April 10, 2024 – remember short session does not formally begin until April 24, 2024.

Stay tuned for advocacy opportunities in early May 2024!

Local Community

A unanimous decision was made on March 14, 2024 by the Town of Cary Council to approve funding for a program by Stable Homes Cary in partnership with Dorcas Ministries that will provide support for community members impacted by large-scale property redevelopment in the town. Council approved a 1.65 million dollar 3-year funding plan starting with $500,000 in year one to assist low-income residents beginning immediately.
128 affordable housing units approved in northern New Hanover County | The New Hanover County Commissioners voted 4 to 1 to approve a rezoning request for New Hope CDC’s plan to construct 128 affordable housing units in the northern part of the county. The housing units proposed will be affordable to those earning between $31,000 to $74,000 annually.
Asheville City Council voted to approve several local measures last week, including the issuance of bonds for two affordable housing projects. One of the recipients was Lakeshore Villas, which will begin construction in May 2024, and be a mix of 1,2 and 3, bedroom units affordable to 60% AMI, and the second is Laurel Wood Apartments’ which will be affordable to those earning 40-80% AMI.
Faith communities join forces to impact affordable housing crisis | transylvaniatimes.com The Brevard Transylvania Housing Coalition recently held their first Faith and Housing Social Impact Summit. Rev. Keith Thompson with Brevard First United Methodist Church shared plans to create teacher housing on land that the church owns in Rosman. Three single family homes will be rented for $1K a month to local teachers. If a teacher stays for 3 years, they will get 40% of the rent paid back to them to go towards the purchase of their own home.
Planning Board votes no on senior apartments on Chadwick Avenue – Hendersonville Lightning | The Hendersonville Planning Board recently voted to recommend denying a proposed 60-unit senior affordable housing development because of concerns over the removal of trees, the amount of parking, and potential flooding near the entrance. The development otherwise scores the maximum number of points for location suitability as determined by the NC Housing Finance Agency’s Qualified Allocation Plan. City Council will ultimately be the deciding body that chooses whether to approve or deny the project.
Economy Inn property off Sugar Creek may soon see new townhomes | WFAE 90.7 – Charlotte City Council voted last night to approve 39 for-sale townhomes at the site of the former Economy Inn off of West Sugar Creek Road. The City purchased the former Economy Inn property last spring as part of their Corridors of Opportunity Plan and conveyed the land to the developer for $1. In exchange, the property will be affordable for at least 20 years to families earning at or below 80% AMI.
Charlotte Nonprofit Secures $2M Deal To Building Affordable Housing For Former Incarcerated Residents | A Charlotte reentry nonprofit recently secured land for a proposed affordable housing development that will help to house people exiting incarceration. Twenty-four 2- and 3-bedroom units will be built and serve families earning between 30-80% AMI. The nonprofit also plans to provide people exiting incarceration with jail release transition support, court advocacy, and public transportation support.
$40 million could be set aside for affordable housing in Winston-Salem. City council mulls housing trust fund | Winston-Salem City Council members met recently to learn more about creating an affordable housing trust fund. Although the creation of the fund is still in the works and will require a vote from council, members were in agreement about the creation of the fund. The city is planning a housing summit for later this spring.
Garner mobile home park residents reach settlement with property owner | NC Newsline Residents of Indian Creek Mobile Home Park in Garner recently reached a $1M class action settlement with the park’s owners after owners treated residents as “purchasers” when it came to repairs needed in the homes and “tenants” when it came to evictions without proper notification. The case was filed by the NC Justice Center and National Consumer Law Council in 2021.

Events

[webinar] Racial Disparities in Tax Subsidies for Homeownership | Tax Policy Center, April 2, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
[webinar] Housing Technology Series Event 3: Equitable Homeownership Innovations | HUD & Terner Labs, April 9, 1 p.m.
Fair Housing Event Series | Gaston Association of Realtors and City of Gastonia, April 11
[webinar] Preserving Owner-Occupied Affordable Homes | National Council of State Housing Agencies, April 17, 12:30 – 5:15 p.m.
CAHEC Partners Conference – Raleigh, NC – June 4 – 5. To register, click here.
Women’s Affordable Housing Network National Housing Summit 2024 – Atlanta, GA – June 9-11. To register, click here.

Reports & Resources

The GAP | National Low Income Housing Coalition
- Check out our summary of NC and national finding from the report here

The US Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commision, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and HUD announced a new resource last week on protections for rental housing applicants and tenants that explains tenants’ rights about background checks and rental screenings. Check out the resource here.
Every Black Voice: A community-driven approach to reparative justice | Policies for Action (Asheville, NC)
What is Preventing Progress on Unsheltered Homelessness? | National Alliance to End Homelessness